Cruel and Rather Unusual Punishment
by pstibbons
Summary: In the post-Potter world, Voldemort considers why Luna Lovegood is his favourite Death Eater. He would never have been able to torture the Malfoys or Weasleys as effectively she did. Ron and Ginny get what they always wanted - and bashed. Past HHr.


The five years after the victory of the Dark Lord had been surprising and eventful. Riddle had shown his true Half-blood colours, living up to his motto 'All that matters is power'. He had broken the back of his Pureblood support by brutally torturing and killing those most likely to oppose him, those most vociferous in their belief of Pureblood superiority - Malfoy, Nott, Clellan, Hillsburgh, Hopkirk - all those families were no more.

There was another reason for turning on his power base. If he had any hope of expanding outside Britain, he needed all the brainpower and manpower and magic he could get. The Purebloods - particularly the more conservative and yet politically influential circles - were far outnumbered by Half-bloods and those of a more neutral stance. He couldn't have the allegiance of both, so he eliminated the smaller group.

In his new society, status was based on magical power - determined by a fair, painful and sometimes fatal test - that anyone had the right to undergo, regardless of blood status. Conditions for some magical creatures, notably werewolves, were much better - they were superior to ordinary wizards all but three days a month, after all. All unicorns were killed, of course, and centaurs were told to leave the country or die. (They chose the latter.)

Knowing one's place was important in this new world. But if you worked hard, you lived well. The economy was good, new business ventures encouraged. The army expanded. Voldemort was a tyrant, but he was interested in having a country worth ruling. People often forgot that undernearth the Voldemort persona was Tom Riddle, the most charming and strategic mind to pass through Hogwarts in a hundred years.

Luna Lovegood was one of the first people he recruited personally after his victory. She had been somewhat difficult to convince at first, as she was a friend of Potter's, but he threw her a bone. A couple of bones, named Lucius and Draco. One had killed her father, the other had brutally assaulted her in every sense of the word. Riddle was curious to see if she would take advantage of the opportunity. A few Crucios for old time's sake, followed by an infestation of termites that ate them from the inside out? Instead, she had turned them into Squibs, enslaved them with magical ankle bands, and given them frontline jobs in Snorkack Sanitary Services, a Muggle enterprise she had set up just for them.

Once he had explained to her his plans for the future, and how she would have heavy funding and staff for hunts for mythical creatures (some of which could be quite useful to his regine), and how he would have gladly accepted Potter and especially Granger into his ranks if they hadn't been hell bent on killing him, she was more open to persuasion. Once he had then showed her how he had eliminated all possible alternatives for her - even death (by way of storing her magic and soul and DNA in an unbreakable crystal for eternity) - she had joined him in an elegant huff.

Since then, he had watched with pride and amusement as she became the most creative Death Eater he had ever seen. Even Bellatrix, long since eliminated as a loose cannon, would have been impressed - despite the fact that Luna generally avoided causing physical torture. Emotional and mental torture was more her style.

Not that she avoided causing pain. Just pain for its own sake.

Consider the punishment of Fenrir Greyback. The rabid creature had - unsurprisingly - proved to be an obstacle in the way of integrating Lycans into polite society. Voldemort wanted to reverse the taboo, to create a situation where it was considered a reward to be honoured with being turned into an enhanced being. So he turned Fenrir over to Lovegood, and watched her use an extremely painful dark ritual to transform him into a meerkat - with his mind fully retained. Greyback became the angriest and most famous meerkat in London Zoo. The visitors thought that the furious, hissing, spitting foot-high creature was extremely cute and photogenic.

Perhaps Voldemort's favourite punishment was the one Luna dealt out to the youngest Weasley spawn. Despite the fact that the dim duo were the ones who had effectively given him final victory over Harry Potter, they had cost him an excellent Death Eater in Hermione Granger. Well, that was not entirely true - the Muggleborn would never have joined him after he killed her lover. Or so his Psychology advisors told him - it's not like he would understand such emotional attachments or unpragmatic stubbornness himself, even if he was operating on a full soul. (Which he was not.)

He knew that even if she was working for him now, Lovegood had a grudge against Ronald and Ginny Weasley. Or, as she called them, Moron and Hinny. He had no trouble giving her permission to do whatever she pleased with Ronald. Ginny, on the other hand, had once hosted part of his soul. And it was her use of Love Potions on Potter and Granger - directing them to her and her worthless brother - that prevented the couple from using a love-based Parseltongue spell on him. He knew from his spies what the spell was, and that it would have successfully destroyed him had their emotional connection not been greatly damaged by the efforts of the Weasleys.

But faced with a choice of keeping his unwitting key to victory alive, and seeing what his most entertaining Death Eater could do to her... it wasn't a choice at all.

Besides, he suspected Lovegood would keep them alive.

He was right.

For the remainder of their lives, the youngest Weasleys lived in the same room.

For the first half of each day, they lived in a spell-driven fantasy where they lived in sexual bliss with their romantic partner of choice. Ginny thought she was making love to Harry Potter. Ronald thought he was shagging Hermione Granger.

For the second half of each day, the spell was lifted, and the two siblings were suddenly aware of the incest they had committed. The screams were most entertaining. Especially on those unfortunately rare days when the male sibling decided not to stop.

Every night, their memories were Obliviated, so the torture could be started afresh the next day.

Now that, thought Thomas Marvolo Riddle, was what cruel and unusual punishment looked like.


End file.
